Flower visitors of the licuri palm (Syagrus coronata): brood pollinators coexist with a diverse community of antagonists and mutualists

Evaluating species interactions as a driver of phytophagous insect divergence

“…weevil species that we previously identified [15] that engage into different kinds of interaction with their host plants and which have widespread geographical distributions. All populations in which at least one individual was sampled were included.…”

“…By comparing the morphology of the two most abundant clusters in sympatry and allopatry, we found differences in the length of ventral plumose hairs and in male secondary sexual characters ( Figure S3). The former might be involved in pollen adherence [15], suggesting the coexistence of an effective pollinator with a closely related exploiter of the weevil-plant mutualism, as found in other brood pollinators such as Yucca moths [14]. These diverged genetic clusters represent cryptic, previously unrecognized species.…”

“…Pollinator Larval breeding Anchylorhynchus trapezicollis [15] Yes Developing seeds Remertus rectinasus [15] No Developing seeds Microstrates bondari [8] No Live male flowers Microstrates ypsilon [15] No Live male flowers Andranthobius bondari [15] No Decaying male flowers Celetes impar [15] No Decaying peduncular bract Celetes decolor [15] No Decaying floral branches Dialomia polyphaga [15] No Damaged inflorescences Phytotribus cocoseae [9,7] No Decaying bracts…”

“…Palms in the genus Syagrus, one of the closest relatives of the coconut [59,57], produce large inflorescences that are visited by dozens of insect species [71,61,60,15]. The most abundant flower visitors of these Neoptropical palms are specialized weevils (family Curculionidae).…”

“…We recently described the community of insects associated with the seasonally dry forest palm Syagrus coronata, showing that many weevil species are broadly distributed throughout the plant geographical range. Some of them are brood pollinators, while others are antagonists breeding on flowers or seeds and some are commensals breeding on decaying plant tissues [15]. Syagrus coronata shares many species of weevil with Syagrus botryophora, a parapatric palm specialized on rainforests and diverged from S. coronata early in the history of the genus Syagrus, about 20 million years ago [57,56,59].…”